Your Duty Of Disclosure

Before you enter into a contract of general insurance with an Insurer, you have a duty, under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984, to disclose to the Insurer every matter that you know, or could reasonably be expected to know, is relevant to the Insurer’s decision whether to accept the risk of the Insurance and, if so, on what terms.

You have the same duty to disclose those matters to the Insurer before you renew, extend, vary or reinstate a contract of general insurance.

Your duty however does not require disclosure of matter:

that diminishes the risk to be undertaken by the Insurer;

that is of common knowledge;

that your Insurer knows or, in the ordinary course of his business, ought to know;

as to which compliance with your duty is waived by the Insurer.

Non-Disclosure

If you fail to comply with your duty of disclosure, the Insurer may be entitled to reduce their liability under the contract in respect of a claim or may cancel the contract.

If your non-disclosure is fraudulent, the Insurer may also have the option of avoiding the contract from its beginning.

Some examples of matters that require disclosure (if not previously advised) are as follows.

Please contact this office should you require clarification of the above or wish to disclose any information that you consider the Insurer needs to be made aware of.

Financial Ombudsman Service

Clients who are not fully satisfied with our service should contact us on (03) 9244 7777 and ask to speak with our Client Relations Officer. Arthur J. Gallagher also subscribe to the Financial Ombudsman Service (a free consumer service) and the Insurance Brokers Code of Practice.

Further information is available from our office.

Average

Some policies contain an “average” (otherwise called “co-insurance” clause). This type of clause requires you to bear a proportion of each loss or claim if the sum insured is inadequate to cover the full potential loss. In effect, you are taken to have self-insured a proportion of the risk, because you have not insured the full value of the risk.

To avoid the application of average you must ensure that the level of your insurance is adequate whenever you arrange a new policy or renew an existing policy. If your insurance is on a “reinstatement or replacement” basis (ie “new for old”), the sum insured must be for the full cost of replacing the insured property with new property.

Cancellation

If a cover is cancelled before the expiry of the period of Insurance, we will refund to you only the net return premium we received from the insurer, less an administration fee. We will not refund any part of the brokerage we receive for arranging the cover. For your protection, once a certificate of insurance has been issued for any policy, a cancellation refund will not be available.

If further information is required, please contact our office.

General Advice Notice

To the extent that any material in this document may be considered advice, it does not take into account your objectives, needs or financial situation. You should consider whether the advice is appropriate for you and review any relevant Product Disclosure Statement and policy wording before taking out an insurance policy.

Exclusive Treatment

We believe we are the perfect size Broker. Small enough to provide friendly individually tailored services and advice, but large enough to command vital insurer support which means competitive premiums and increased service levels for our clients.

As testament to this, we are often invited to participate in Programs which are reserved for select brokers. Vital elements of the selection criteria are that the brokers must be large enough to provide a high level of insurer support, and the broker’s clients must be well run / operated business’ that ensures good claims history which creates the following win, win, win situation. Competitive premiums and increased levels of service standards for our clients, profitable results for the insurers and on most occasions dependent on the achievement of various targets, an additional commission &/or profit share ranging from 0-5% &/or business development services provided to us. Current Insurers offering our clients this opportunity are: Allianz Australia Insurance Ltd, Calliden Insurance Ltd, QBE Insurance (Australia) Ltd and Zurich Financial Services Australia Ltd.

Interests Of Other Parties

Some insurance contracts do not cover the interest in the insured property or risk of any one other than the person(s) named in the contract. Common examples are where property is jointly owned or subject to finance but the contract only names one owner or does not name the financier. Please tell us about everyone who has an interest in the property insured so we can ensure that they are noted on your contract of insurance.

Waiver Of Rights

Some insurance contracts seek to limit or exclude claims where the insured person has limited the insurer’s rights to recover a loss from the person who was responsible for it, eg by signing an agreement which disclaims or limits the liability of another party.

Please tell us about any contracts of this type which you have or propose to enter into.

Client And Third Party Provider Notice (Your Privacy Guarantee)

For the protection of your privacy, we only collect personal information to enable us to provide you with our various services. These services include – insurance broking, claims management, risk management consulting, financial services, health insurance, premium funding and other forms of insurance services.

We disclose personal information to third parties who we believe are necessary to assist us in providing our services. For example, in arranging and managing your insurance needs we will usually provide information to insurers, reinsurers, other insurance intermediaries, insurance reference bureaus, our advisers such as lawyers and accountants, loss adjusters and others involved in the claims handling process. We may also provide it to purchasers of our business and related companies.

For further information or a copy of our Privacy Guarantee, please contact our Privacy Officer.